A Productive Marriage

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) found that PV systems on Energy Star homes make an impressive combination.

As part of a demonstration program sponsored by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) in 2002, home builders in the state were offered an incentive of as much as $20,000 for the installation of a 2 kW PV system, provided that it was installed on an Energy Star model home in a subdivision of at least five Energy Star homes. The performance of the PV systems was to be monitored as part of the program. Yes, this was essentially a free PV system, and there were additional incentives for building to New York Energy Star Home (NYESH) standards. Sounds like an offer that’s too good to refuse, but it took two years to find six builder projects that met the criteria and that were also geographically distributed around the state, which was an important consideration for the project.